Hezbollah has been expanding its influence in Lebanon’s education sector, using a network of companies, programs, and unofficial unions to collect data on students, teachers, and their families, while allegedly laundering funds and financing the group, a newspaper report revealed. 

Investigations by Nidaa Al-Watan reveal a complex system involving several entities, including ACTC, IET, ElectroSlab, and the e-school application, which have infiltrated schools across Lebanon.

Sources identified R.B., the Lebanese agent for the British company Promission operating under ACTC, as a key figure. He is reportedly linked to the sons of Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem. Legal disputes with business partners were resolved through “party courts” rather than Lebanese judicial channels, which ordered the closure of ACTC’s main institute on Airport Road but allowed its Nabatiyeh branch to remain open.

R.B. later founded IET, selling interactive classroom boards, with shipments reportedly covering six containers for the current school year. The boards, which were previously priced at $6,000 each, are now sold for $2,400.

Under former Labor Minister Mustafa Bayram, a so-called “Education Technology Union” was established without official decree, with R.B. reportedly at its head. The move provoked controversy as it bypassed the existing Lebanese Informatics Union, with critics reporting threats to those who questioned the union’s legality.

The small tech store ElectroSlab, owned by A.S., also expanded into multiple branches and allegedly sought to sell educational technology to Syrian schools before the Assad regime’s fall. Sources claim the losses were absorbed by Qassem’s sons, who later sold the store’s contents in Lebanon at reduced prices to push the adoption of the e-school program.

The e-school application is designed to track students’ locations, family members, and teachers, automatically collecting data once installed. Investigators say it has been adopted by schools ranging from Catholic and Evangelical institutions to Makassed schools and those in the southern suburbs. Some schools withdrew after discovering the identities of those behind the program, but others remained due to its low cost, financial incentives, and discounted technology equipment.

Marketing of the program reportedly followed sectarian lines: Christian areas were targeted through J.N., Sunni areas through a locally accepted Syrian representative, and Shia areas through Hezbollah’s educational mobilization unit.

The report warns the implications go beyond education or finance.

“When an armed group has access to comprehensive citizen data, it can monitor and intimidate opponents,” the report said, noting that Hezbollah has allegedly employed such tactics in the past.